While studying at the factory school of the 'Serp and Molot' plant, where he received a specialty in electrical installation, he took private drawing lessons from Moscow artists R. Mazel and E. Sakhnovskaya.
[5] From 1957 to 1966 he assembled an extensive collection of Karakalpak jewellery, carpets, coins, clothing, and other artifacts and convinced the authorities of the need for a museum.
[6] Thereafter, Savitsky began collecting the works of Central Asian artists, including Alexander Volkov, Ural Tansykbayev, Nikolay Karakhan, and Victor Ufimtsev of the Uzbek school, and later those of the Russian avant-garde – including Robert Falk, Mikhail Kurzin,[7] Vera Mukhina, Kliment Red'ko, Lyubov Popova, Ivan Koudriachov, Vera Pestel, Solomon Nikritin, Georgiy Echeistov, and the Amaravella group.
[8] Despite the risk of being denounced as an “enemy of the people”, Savitsky sought out proscribed painters and their heirs to collect, archive, and display their works.
"[11] Savitsky and the collection he assembled of avant-garde art provide the subject matter for the 2010 documentary film The Desert of Forbidden Art directed by Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev, with Savitsky's voice by Ben Kingsley and other artists' voices by Sally Field, Ed Asner and Igor Paramonov.